Education / Graduate Education / Trainee Handbook / Academic Resources / Thesis Defense / PhD Thesis Defense Timeline

PhD Thesis Defense Timeline

Action	When
Identify a faculty member to serve as Chair for your defense. The Chair must be a current full-time tenure-track University of Rochester faculty member at assistant professor rank or higher who is external to the program, and without a significant scholarly relationship with the candidate or other committee members.	At least 4 months prior to scheduling a defense date.
Notify your Graduate Coordinator of your scheduled defense date. Your Graduate Coordinator will start your defense record in an online system. You will be asked to provide other documents to complete the online defense record. Check with your Graduate Coordinator to determine when these documents must be submitted.	At least 2 months prior to defense date.
Poll your Defense Chair, Advisor and Advisory Committee to determine their preference for thesis format (hard copy/pdf).	At least 2 months prior to defense date.
Provide your thesis to your Defense Chair, Advisor, and Advisory Committee in their preferred format (hard copy or pdf).	At least 25 full work days prior to the defense.
Graduate Coordinator will submit defense record through online system. This generates an email to your Advisor, Advisory Committee and Program Director to requests online approval of the thesis submitted for defense.	At least 20 working days prior to the defense.
Registration of thesis for defense. The University Dean for Graduate Studies reviews and approves the thesis and defense record. This generates an email to your Defense Chair, Advisor and Advisory Committee announcing the date, time, and location of defense. The Defense Chair receives instructions for the defense, forms and for reporting of the exam outcome.	At least 5 full working days prior to the defense.
The copy of your thesis submitted online may be notated to indicate required revisions. The University Graduate Studies Office may also notate required corrections to the format off your thesis. This annotated copy, along with the original thesis, will be stored in the PhD Completion website for you to reference after your defense. Log into https://phdprocess.ur.rochester.edu using your email login credentials (AD account). Look for the following document: THESIS_STUDENT NAME_UGS.	After your defense.
Submission of final corrected abstract and thesis after defense to ProQuest. The School allows 60 calendar days after the defense date for submission. However, defenses scheduled later in the semester will be subject to a deadline date that may be shorter than 60 days.	See the PhD Program Thesis Defense Calendar or the Academic Calendar for specific deadline dates.

This calendar is subject to change without notice.